STRANGE ACTIVITY AROUND THE MONTEREY BAY.. IT'S ATTRACTED THE ATTENTION OF MARINE BIOLOGISTS, THE LOCALS.. AND EVEN SOME LUCKY TOURISTS... WE HAVE TEAM COVERAGE FROM MONTEREY AND SANTA CRUZ COUNTIES. LET'S START WITH ACTION NEWS PHIL GOMEZ LIVE IN SANTA CRUZ.# HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF FISH CALLED, WHITE CROAKER WASHED ONTO MANRESA STATE BEACH OVER THE LAST FEW DAYS ...NO ONE SEEMED TO KNOW HOW THEY GOT THERE....BUT WE BELIEVE WE HAVE THE ANSWER AFTER TALKING WITH SOME LOCAL EXPERTS. First we saw one and then further on we saw one and we'd go another fifty feet and there was a blanket of dead fish. THAT BLANKET STRETCHED FOR A QUARTER-MILE... AND WAS ABOUT FIVE FEET WIDE IN SOME SPOTS. WHITE CROAKER FISH WITH THEIR MOUTHS AGAPE...VISITORS SAY THEY WERE DISCOVERED JUST DAYS AGO,. The tide obviously took a lot of them out. There's a lot here some of them were stacked a foot deep yesterday. ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS FOLLOW THE SEAGULLS... THERE WERE HUNDREDS OF THEM...AND A SEA LION WHO KNOWS A FREE MEAL WHEN HE SEES IT. We said, hmmm, we better go check them out and swee what the birds were doing. we're amazed. Looks like a factory tht dumped all of the fish. Never Seen anything like it. THAT'S ALMOST WHAT HAPPENED. IT'S SUSPECTED THAT ALL OF THESE FISH WERE DUMPED. More likely explanation there wer bi-catch by somebody targeting squid or something else and they were incidently caught andthen released. STATE FISH AND WILDLIFE EXPERTS SAY THE FISH APPEAR TO HAVE SUFFOCATED... ANOTHER INDICATION THEY WERE PROBABLY CAUGHT IN A NET. With their mouths agape indicates they were trying to get oxygen and they didn't have that secondly we found there were quite a few sand dollars which are indicitive of being scooped up while they're fresh on the bottom. These nets are very deep and when they drop them they will disturb the bottom. WHILE CROAKER FISH ARE OKAY TO EAT...THERE'S NO BIG COMMERCIAL VALUE FOR THEM WHICH IS PROBABLY WHY THEY ENDED UP ON THE BEACH INSTEAD OF SOMEONE'S DINNER TABLE. AFTER SEEING THE PICTURES OF THE DEAD FISH, SOME PEOPLE ONLINE SPECULATED THAT THE FISH MAY HAVE DIED BECAUSE OF RADIATION ... WE SPOKE WITH SEVERAL EXPERTS WHO DISMISSED THAT IDEA. ACTION NEWS REPORTER BRYNNE WHITTACKER CONTINUES OUR TEAM COVERAGE